James Boyce is the author of 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia and Van Diemen’s Land.

Richard Flanagan has said of Van Diemen's Land “The most significant colonial history since The Fatal Shore. In re-imaging Australia’s past, it invents a new future.” Tim Flannery describes it as “A brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people.” Van Diemen’s Land won the 2009 Tasmania Book Prize and the 2008 Colin Roderick Award.

James Boyce's essay ‘Fantasy Island’ was the central contribution to Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttle's Fabrication of Aboriginal History, edited by Robert Manne, and was short-listed for the Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2004. He also wrote the Tasmania chapter for First Australians, the companion book to the SBS TV series. He is an honorary research associate at the University of Tasmania’s Centre for Environmental Studies.